11/15/2007 @ 6:00PM

Two Meals With Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell is the best-selling author of more than 20 books. Her work has been translated into more than 30 languages. Her latest novel, Book of the Dead, is published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

What would be your last meal?

Truthfully? Nothing. I’d be too sad to eat.

What was your most memorable meal, and what made it so?

A lunch at Pizza Hut in Asheville, N.C., in the spring of 1976. I had salad and a slice of pizza that I don’t recall, and that most assuredly aren’t worth remembering. But on that day, Ruth Graham, (the wife of Minister Billy Graham), called my house and invited me to lunch, to my utter amazement–I was just this little nobody 19-year-old. During our time together, she gave me a beautiful burgundy leather journal and told me she wanted me to write. And that was the moment I decided there might be something worthwhile about me, and I must have just a little talent. Why else would such an extraordinary person single me out and be so kind and empowering?